China reshuffles provincial leaders

BEIJING, Sep 26 (Reuters) China's Communist Party chief Hu Jintao today appointed a political ally as governor of southern Hunan as part of a reshuffle of provincial leaders to further consolidate his power ahead of a key party meeting, two independent political sources said.

Zhou Qiang, 46, first secretary of the Communist Youth League, was named governor of Hunan province, said the sources who have knowledge of the appointment. Hunan is the birthplace of the late Chairman Mao Zedong.

''The Communist Youth League will dominate the reshuffle,'' one source told Reuters, requesting anonymity.

The Youth League, Hu's power base, is the party's ''helping hand and reserve army'' and boasts 71.9 million members.

State media have yet to announce Zhou's appointment.

It was not immediately clear if Hunan's outgoing provincial governor, Zhou Bohua, would be given a new job.

In another personnel change, Yu Youjun, governor of the northern coal-producing province of Shanxi, is expected to replace Mr Zhang Baoshun as the provincial party chief, the sources said.

Mr Zhang, a Hu ally, is tipped for higher office.

In June, another Mr Hu ally, Liu Qibao, was named party chief of the southern region of Guangxi.

Earlier today, state media said the party's elite Central Committee, with about 350 members, will hold its sixth plenary session from October eight to 11.

A focus of the plenum will be whether Hu, who is also state president, has the political clout to name an ally to replace Chen Liangyu, who was sacked as Shanghai party boss on Sunday. Chen was accused of corruption and also lost his seat in the party's powerful 24-member Politburo.

Mr Hu, 63, emerged from the shadow of predecessor Jiang Zemin in 2004 when he became chairman of the party's Central Military Commission, completing China's first smooth generational leadership succession since the 1949 Communist revolution.

But Jiang, 80, still wields some residual influence through political allies who dominate the party's all-powerful nine-member Politburo Standing Committee headed by Hu.

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